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Sunday, 29 April 2018

My Altar Set Up and Ready for my Beltane Rite

Here is my Beltane altar all set up and ready for my celebration of the start of May. I like to set my altar up well in advance of a ritual to check that I have everything I need - and I am very lucky that I have my witchy room where I can leave things out for a few days.

Most of the items you see in the photo have come from the Wicca Moon Wheel of the Year boxes I've been getting this year. They do build up into a really wonderful ritual kit. Starting from the left, the chalice and pentacle were part of the Wicca Moon Imbolc Box, the purple beeswax goddess candle was in the current Beltane Box, the Goddess figurine came in the Ostara kit while the god figurine, green god candle and pine-tipped wand were in thet Beltane Box.

The items are standing on two altar cloths - a white base cloth from Imbolc and the sparkly one on top for Beltane.

A few things on the altar are my own. The twig tree at the back was made by myself from upcycled items - I'll blog a bit more about about how I've decorated it further in a day or so. The candle holders and incense burner are things I've owned for ages, while the lovely Beltane Fire candle was a birthday gift from a friend.

Wicca Moon also supplied a few more essentials: handmade soap for a ritual bath as well as seasonal incense and charcoal blocks to burn it on. Understandably, cakes and wine are things you have to get yourself.

Every box includes a ritual that can be performed solitary or with a partner. The Beltane rite is a celebration of fire and a visualisation of its vitality entering our lives to fill us with abundance, plenty and potency. The ritual can be a celebration of sex if you want it to be, or it can be a celebration of other pleasures of life - including mindful eating of blessed food and drink.

My favourite items in the Beltane Box are the statue of the horned god and the pine cone-topped wand, or thyrsus, which in ancient times was carried by followers of Dionysus, Greek god of wine and ecstasy.

I've been looking for an ideal horned god figure for my altar for some time and this fits the bill perfectly. I love it just as much as the goddess figure from last month's box of goodies. I'm also delighted to have the pine cone wand decorated with colourful streamers. Mind you, my cats love it too and I am wondering if it is going to end up as a magical tool or a cat toy!